somewhere out there...

We watched An American Tail the other day on TV. That reminded me of when I played Somewhere Out There on the piano at my 6th grade "graduation ceremony" in grade school. That was one of 3 or 4 songs we sang together as a class on that occasion. My whole class sang on stage while I accompanied on the piano in front of millions of people and parents watching, scrutinizing every note I played. I think that was the last time I ever played the piano in public. After watching the movie I felt like giving the song another reminisce, 20 years later... Daniel liked it. He likes to play the piano and amazingly he doesn't pound on the keys like most kids would, he actually plays one key at a time nice and softly. So here we are playing the piano together. And I'm practicing smiling too.

Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We convinced everyone to come to Maricopa this year and have turkey here. After the awesome meal we went to the park and played kickball. All the cousins loved playing together. There was even a pretty lake there that Daniel almost went swimming in but mom grabbed him at the last second.

Of course we forgot to take any pictures of the festivities so I thought I'd include these. Daniel loves roasted pumpkin seeds and we had one pumpkin left over from Halloween, so we decided to get the seeds before it went bad. Daniel loved helping.

Ice-Cream Fixes Everything

Daniel has a couple of new Molars coming in. I don't remember when mine came in but based on Daniel's experience, it must really suck. Normally he's a happy camper, but the last two days he's been fussing and crying all the time. Tonight, somewhere between eating dinner and making home-made ice-cream he finally cheered up some. I think it was the ice-cream. Here are some pictures. The first one is him expressing his feelings about his new molars:



Then he's happy to be helping mom make the ice-cream, and we're happy that he's happy!



I don't know where he got this idea, but he would rub the outside of the ice bucket which is freezing cold then rub his cold hand over his face and neck like he's cooling himself off. And he must have gotten some rock salt on his hand because he kept licking his hands, or he just likes to lick his hands, I don't know.

Family Photo Fun

I can't produce a natural smile on demand. When they say to smile, suddenly I can't. What is up with that! I have to think to myself, hmmm, I know what that means, but how does it work again? I was smiling right up until they told me to smile then suddenly I forgot how, and no matter how much I try I come out having some sort of blank stare of my face. The more I try the more frustrated I get then it's just that much more difficult to smile. ok, end of disclaimer. Just look at Daniel, he's like a table ornament. Our family pictures, an awkward moment for me frozen in time forever.

The Backman Scramble!!!

Every year around this time Heidi's brothers get together for the Backman Scramble. It's a formal golf tournament held at different golf courses each year in Utah. The winning team each gets a Green Jacket to wear for the next year. Last year I played with them for the first time in St George, it was so much fun. Thanks to my team Dave & Joe, I also got to take home the Green Jacket.

This year I'm not sure if I can make it because I have no vacation time left. But in my absense I've carefully prepared these photos of myself to be used in various stages of the Scamble. My team can hold each one up during the course whenever appropriate.

"Darin" excited for the tourney to get started:



"Darin" offering support and encouragement to team members:



"Darin" heckling the other competitors:



"Darin" intensly focusing on his putt:



"Darin" victory glamour pose for the 2nd year in a row:



(This picture was taken in FL, which ironically, is where most of my vacation days went to...we had so much fun there!)

Do As I'm Doing.......

Heidi flips through baby books at church for Daniel to help keep him still, at least for a few minutes. One of his favorite books has colors on each page, some sort of texture to feel coinciding with the color like a lizards skin (green) and a scratch-n-sniff scent to go with it. Heidi would scratch the page then hold it up to her nose and dramatically smell the page so he would understand to smell it. I think he finally got it. He not only smells that book, but he smells every book we read to him. I was reading a Dr Seuss book to him and every once in awhile he would hold the book up to his face and smell. I would say to him, I think that page smells like page 7. That page smells like page 10.

He always wants to eat what we're eating so Heidi gives him something off her plate and blows on it if it's hot before giving it to him. He will sometimes blow on it himself too before eating it. It's funny to see him pucker his lips. Now he blows on everything. He blows on the orange slices I give him right out of the fridge, his crackers and a plain flour tortilla. Well, you never know, better safe than sorry I guess.

He likes to hang with mom in the kitchen while she's cooking and help sometimes. He would want to put his face up to the oven window and see what's cooking inside. The oven doesn't get hot enough to hurt if he touches it but I wanted him to know that he should be careful about putting his face on something that's 450 degrees inside. So I would put my hand out to the oven and say Hot! Hot! and pull my hand away. Then he would put his hand out and I would repeat with him. He does that now with other things too. He'll point up at the ceiling light and say Hot! Hot! or he'll point outside and say Hot! He got that one right.